The concept of God taking on the form of a man is a difficult concept for most adults to understand. When trying to express the concept to a child, the task becomes even more difficult, particularly in today's culture where schools teach children they are an accident of nature, descended from apes rather than a unique child lovingly crafted by the hand of God in God's own image. The most important question a child will ever ask is "Who is Jesus?" because our individual response to that question determines where we will spend eternity. It is important then that parents, grandparents, teachers and concerned adults be equipped to answer the question in a way that helps the child understand that Jesus is real, relevant, and desires a relationship with that child.
It seems that dolls tend to become real persons in the minds of children. There is just something about being able to hold a cuddly caricature, to talk to her/him, to call her/him by name, spend time with her/him, etc., that makes even a make-believe character take on a personality in a child's mind. In addition, a doll can provide a sense of security and a source of comfort.
It is an object of the present invention to provide parents, grand-parents, Sunday school teachers and other responsible adults, a teaching tool that can be used to teach children from the earliest ages about the historic Jesus, His life and teachings, as well as His love for His children. These and other objects are accomplished by providing a flexible, soft doll bearing a resemblance of a caricature of Jesus; a voice simulator which speaks phrases. Preferably, these phrases comprise words spoken by Jesus during His earthly ministry (simplified for a child's vocabulary). Alternatively, the phrases may take the form of words that express the character of Jesus and His love for the child. The doll includes an actuator for the voice simulator contained within a body portion of said doll which may be manually activated to speak one or more of these phrases. The actuator may be concealed in Jesus' hand with a cross identifying the place to squeeze to effect voice activation. In one embodiment, both sets of phrases are included on separate voice simulators with a switch to enable the supervising adult to switch from one set of phrases to the other when s/he deems the child's vocabulary and mental faculties make such a transition appropriate.
Who better for a child to turn to for a sense of security than the One who holds the stars in place and who better for a child to turn to for comfort than the One who is called the Comforter? By providing a child with a Jesus doll, adults will be fostering a child's dependence on the only Person that can actually be counted on not to let them down and initiating a friendship with Christ that will last beyond the end of time.
Various other features, advantages and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after a reading of the following specification.